


Coffee Spills and Ink Smudges

by TheKidFromYesterday



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: AU, Angst, Barista!Phil, Coffee Shop, Dan Howell/Phil Lester - Freeform, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Character Death, artist!dan, awkward!Dan, cuteness, fluff!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-19
Updated: 2015-10-01
Packaged: 2018-04-21 11:53:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4828151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheKidFromYesterday/pseuds/TheKidFromYesterday
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan spends more time than needed at the coffee shop where Phil works, but it's only because the prices are cheap and definitely not because Phil is cute.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In the Beginning...

DAN  
The bells chime as I step through the doors of the coffee shop. The rich scent of freshly brewed coffee wraps itself around me, and I immediately make my way to the front to order.   
The barista working is the same as usual, an overly friendly guy named Phil, according to his nametag.   
Making my drink seems to take longer when he does it than when any other barista does, but I don’t mind. It gives me more time to study him.  
His stunning, green-blue eyes seems to always be laughing, and his smile is genuine that it almost makes me want to smile back.  
“The usual?” He asks me, and I’m amazed that he’s remembered my “usual”.   
“Um, yeah, please?” I answer, inwardly cringing when my voice squeaks.   
He nods, smirking, as he turns to prepare my drink. “So what do you draw all the time when you’re here?” he asks, and I hesitate. I’ve only spoken maybe three different words to him before now, and I wasn’t planning on changing that anytime soon. My social skills are nothing to be proud of, and making a fool out of myself in front of a cute guy wasn’t on my to-do list.   
I give a noncommittal shrug, picking at the countertop, “Whatever comes to mind, I guess.” I feel a blush creeping up to my cheeks and I try to fight it down, but to no avail. “It’s mostly just doodles really.”  
Phil grins at me over his shoulder, “Must be pretty interesting doodles for you to be back there for hours.”  
I shoot him a weak smile as he returns with my drink. I pull out my wallet to pay, but he stops me.   
“Nah it’s cool. It’s on the house today.” He winks, handing me my coffee.  
Our fingers brush as he hands it over, and I try like crazy not to blush like some love struck idiot.  
“Um, thanks again.” I mumble, almost tripping over my feet as I head back to the booth farthest from the door.   
The coffee shop has recently become my one escape from the constant swarm of university chaos in my life, the back booth becoming my haven. Coming here so often, I’ve picked up on the small details about it, the way the third light fixture down always seems to be missing a bulb, or the groups of people who hang out while I’m here.   
I take a sip of my coffee, pulling out my sketchbook to continue one of my most recent drawings. It’s not much yet, but you can still clearly make out the hidden image of Phil’s smile among the other sketch lines.  
~~~~~  
PHIL  
I hand him his coffee, smiling slightly at how our fingers brush, and how it has affected him. His soft face suddenly floods with a blush and he ducked his head. Taking his coffee, he stumbles away, leaving me grinning at his adorable awkwardness.   
He’s been coming to the coffee shop where I work for almost three months now and he has hardly seemed to get any more comfortable around me. Oh well, at least he talked a bit. Up until now he’s hardly said anything except “On medium caramel macchiato please” and “Thanks.”   
Still smiling to myself, I help the next customer in line. I manage to properly concoct the drink they request, but I can’t help stealing glances at the cute boy. He had soft-looking hair, similar to mine, except it was brown where mine was raven black, and his eyes were rich chocolate brown.   
When he walked into the shop for the first time, I know I was screwed. His eyes seemed to paralyze me; In a good way, of course. I’ve gotten better at talking to him, even going so far as flirting with him (This only resulted in more blushing on his part), but I still get butterflies when I make eye contact.   
Having finished with all the customers in line, I’m able to focus more attention on the boy sitting across the cafe. He’s deeply focused on a drawing, his lower lip caught between his teeth in concentration. His hair falls into his eyes in the most adorable way and he distractedly pushes it out of the way. I wonder what he could be drawing that takes such concentration. He keeps making various expressions at the paper, as if confused emotionally, and he’s so focused on his drawing, I didn’t even bother to hide the fact that I’m openly staring at him, my chin resting on my hand.   
I’m so enthralled by his movements and expressions, that I don’t notice a customer trying to get my attention.  
“Excuse me!”   
I jerk my head up. There’s a woman at the counter tapping her long fingernails impatiently on the surface, an annoyed look on her face.  
“So sorry about that Ma’am!” I say brightly, straightening up and trying to hide the fact that I was just caught staring at the boy. “What can I get you?”   
~~~~~  
The rest of my day goes pretty much like that. Help a customer, get distracted by the beautiful boy, zone out and get a reproving look, repeat. About an hour later the boy gets up and started shoving his sketchbook and box of art supplies into a Pokemon backpack. I try to catch a glimpse at what he had been working so intently on, but only manage to lean out over the counter, earning myself strange looks from the patrons sitting nearby. I smile at them to try and dispel the awkwardness, but that’s what I get, I guess, for being nosy. He hadn’t seemed to want to tell me what he had been drawing, and here I am being nosy about it. It was probably something very personal to him; of course he wasn’t going to let some random guy at the coffee shop see it. As he walks out the door, setting off the cheerful little bell, I can’t help but to call out, “Have a nice day!” This draws more stares, as I never normally give any sort of farewell. The boy looks at me, kind of startled and I smile, hoping it would once again break apart the awkwardness between us. Ducking his head, he once more flushes bright red, and I can’t help but grin. He mumbles something that was probably ‘goodbye’, and quickly leaves.  
The strange looks I was getting from the customers disappear back to their tablets, iPhones, and laptops, leaving me smiling like an idiot after the boy.


	2. Memories and Cats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan and Phil get to know each other better and Phil think back on past relationships.

DAN  
"No, no, no it's not right!" I furiously scrub at the lines that sprawl across the page, making them disappear again. "Can't get it right...."  
"Shh!"  
I glance up to meet the reproachful stare directed at me from some elderly woman.   
"I'm sorry?" I manage out, rather stunned.   
"You've been talking to yourself all afternoon, and it's been getting on my nerves." She looks annoyed at the fact that I didn't know what she was talking about.   
"Oh. Right. Sorry." I mutter, turning back to my drawing. I wasn't talking to myself, I want to tell her, I was talking to my drawing, but I decide to let her keep thinking I'm at least semi-sane.   
I glance down to see my drawing, shooting it a quick glare. Not matter how many times I erase and redraw his features, I still haven't managed to capture the beauty that is Phil's features.   
I can't get that light that resides in his deep, blue green eyes, shining with joy that comes from just being alive. His bright smile, making even the black of his barista uniform seem happy and cheerful. His hair of all things should be easy to draw, it mirrored mine almost exactly, but each attempt to draw it ended in frustration and the eraser wearing smaller and smaller.   
I let out a small groaned frustration and drop my pencil on the table top, ignoring the eye roll from the rude lady.   
The drawing is more of a mess of lines by now, and I can barely make out what it's supposed to be. By now, I've stared at it long enough so that I'm starting to hate it, and I slam the sketch book closed.   
"Done already?"  
I jump and look up to see Phil watching me from a table over as he wipes it down with an old rag.   
Oh god how long has he been there? I wonder, inwardly groaning at the thought that he had seen me mumbling to my drawing.   
"W-what?"  
He gestures to my closed notebook. "You usually stay here longer, are you done drawing already?" His eyes are laughing, but he actually looks a little disappointed.   
"Oh, uh no actually. I'm not planning on leaving yet. Just tired of the thing I was drawing." I manage not to stutter too much and give myself a mental pat on the back.   
"Oh okay. Cool." He smiles, and I swear time stops and runs at a million miles a minute at the same time. "What were you drawing?"  
Half of me is terrified that I'll have to show him the drawing, but the other half of me is secretly rejoicing that Phil, Phil, is talking to me for more than a minute.   
"Uhh," My brain goes on panic mode for a moment, desperate to think of something, anything to say. "Cats."  
His eyebrows go up and I can just see any chance of a friendship between us flying out the window.  
"Really? I love cats!" Phil exclaims, his eyes shining with joy, "Well, I've never actually had a cat before. I'm allergic. But they're so cute and fluffy and what's not to love, right? I've always had this hope that maybe one day I'll wake up and I won't be allergic to them anymore and I'll be able to have a pet cat?" He ends the sentence as a question almost, but charges ahead before I'm able to get out a response. "I don't think that could even happen. But I can still wish right?" He laughs.   
I give him a smile, watching him in awe. He's easily the strangest and definitely the most adorable person I've ever had the pleasure of meeting, and I don't notice that I'm staring until he laughs again, somewhat awkwardly, and sticks out his hand.   
"I'm Phil by the way, sorry I forgot to introduce myself earlier."  
I shake his hand, gesturing to the empty seat in front of me. "Dan. Nice to meet you." I offer a smile as I discreetly slide my drawing pad into my backpack, hoping that he forgot about it.   
"So do you really draw cats?" He asks, sitting down across from me. "Or was that a lie?"  
I give him a half laugh, praying it doesn't sound too forced or nervous. "I dunno. I've probably drawn cats at some point. But I mostly draw people."  
His face brightens. "People? Like who?"  
"Uhh, anyone really. Anyone who's around me...." I glance downwards, trying to hide the blush that climbs my face.   
"That's so cool. I wish I could draw." He grins, "Is that what you draw when you're here all the time? The people around you?"  
I nod.   
"Have you drawn me?"   
I hesitate then shake my head. Technically, I haven't drawn him yet, it's still half finished, plus I don't want to sound like some sort of stalker.   
He looks disappointed for a moment, but the look is quickly replaced by a laugh. "Ah well. That's cool. Maybe eventually?"  
I grin, "Yeah. Yeah maybe."  
We sit in silence for a moment before he taps the table with his fist. "Right. I gotta get back to work, but it was nice meeting you. I'm guessing I'll probably see you back here?"  
I laugh, "Probably yes. Maybe I'll draw you next time."  
He stands, grabbing his cleaning rag. "See you round then, Dan."  
I smile. "Bye Phil."   
~~~~~  
PHIL  
I hang my apron on its designated hook and push my hand through my hair. Dan left several hours ago, leaving me without anything to distract me from the monotony of serving coffee. My shift is over, but I’m not able to relax just yet. It will take me at least thirty minutes to get back to my apartment, what with traffic and all. I grab my keys and head out the back door after clocking out.  
The one nice thing about sitting in traffic was that I get a chance to reflect on the events of the day. Lately my mind has been focused on one particular brown-fringed event. Despite being surrounded by irate drivers and moving at an agonizingly slow pace, I can’t help but smile. I had gotten him to talk beyond ordering his drink. Plus I had gotten a closer glimpse at his sketchbook. I really don’t want to be rude, but I genuinely want to know what could absorb so much of his energy and attention. For some reason, I’m not weirded out by the fact that he might draw me at some time. I welcome the opportunity if it means I get to talk to him more. I shake my head a little bit. Why am I stressing about speaking to him more often when there’s an obvious solution. I can just ask him out.   
Now that the idea is in my head, I can’t stop thinking about it. I decide that next time I see him, I will ask him out. The worst that could happen is that I could lose a paying customer, and possibly the love of my life. In my excitement at the prospect of dating him, though, I happily ignored the negative thoughts.   
I’m abruptly pulled from my thoughts by a loud noise to my left. Jumping a bit in fright, I lean over the passenger seat to see the source. My stomach drops when I see the car. 

Several lanes over a silver car’s been t-boned by a large pickup truck. Glass is everywhere and traffic’s stopped completely. The passenger is conscious and is pulling at the driver who is terrifyingly still. The driver of the truck is getting out and rushing to the silver car and I see other people also getting out of their cars in an attempt to help. Noticing that no one seems to be on their phone, I pull out mine and quickly dial 999. Upon hearing the woman’s voice on the other end, I explain as best I can what’s happened. The woman remains calm and manages to understand what I say, despite my shaky breathing and halting speech. It isn’t until I hang up that I realize there are tears rolling down my face. I wipe them away, but don’t attempt to stop them. 

 

Three years ago I had been the happiest man alive. I had a crappy apartment, what barely counted as a car, and the lowest paying job imaginable, but I had her. Her name was Amelia, and she was the best thing that ever happened to me. Her short brown hair framed that lovely freckled face that was always smiling. She had loved to sing. When we were cleaning, or when she worked by herself, or whenever we danced together, she would sing the words to herself, albeit very softly. She was so full of life that for a long time I couldn’t even comprehend that she was gone.   
It happened when we were driving late one night, coming home from a date, when out of nowhere there came the bright headlights and screeching tires of a vehicle. I never found out what kind of car it was, because it was a hit and run and to be honest, my attention was focused completely on Amelia and Amelia alone. The driver had pushed us off the road into a grassy ditch and left without so much as calling 999. When I woke up, I was aware of a splitting pain in my head and the fact that my arm was flung across her stomach in an attempt to shield her from the impact. My mind had been in a panic as I dialed 999, while trying desperately to wake her up, but even then I knew it was no use. Her body was already cold by the time the authorities came to my rescue and her voice was silenced. 

Time had been kind and after spending a slightly longer than normal amount of time mourning, I had let happiness back into my life. I think about her often, and she’ll never truly be gone from my memories, but I don’t feel like the thoughts of her are keeping me from my life right now. My decision to ask Dan out is proof of that. Despite having witnessed such a tragedy, I shove the thought aside and instead focus on the brown haired boy in the coffee shop and the thought of our potential relationship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!!!  
> Again, this is half written by my lovely sister :)  
> Comments and kudos are welcome, they make me very happy!!


	3. A Rejection, or is it?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phil finally gets up the courage to ask Dan out, but Dan's response is less than ideal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is so late!! Apparently trying to coordinate how the story's supposed to go is harder with two people. Here's an extra long chapter to make up for the long wait.

Phil

I get to work much earlier than I needed to. Clocking in before anyone else gets there, I busy myself with setting out muffins and pastries, and other things for sale. Now that I am away from my bed, I begin to feel tired again. Once I woke up this morning, I immediately remembered that I’m going to ask Dan out today, and couldn’t seem to fall back to sleep. I try to tell myself that I’m simply excited to see him again, but in truth, I’m quite nervous. Sure, he likes me, even with my ineptitude at talking to people, I can see that, but what if I’ve misjudged his feelings? I shake my head, continuing to make sure the apple turnovers were symmetrical in their glass case. I’m confident that he’ll say yes, and that if he didn’t, I would be able to accept his refusal gracefully and smile as my heart is smashed to pieces.   
I hear the little bell ring and glance up from the drink I’m making. My breath catches when I see him. Any second thoughts about asking him out are driven from my mind when he smiles shyly at me and heads to the counter.   
“Er, hello.” He says awkwardly.  
“Hey Dan.” I reply, trying not to sound like I’m choking on my own spit. I set the drink I was preparing on the counter. I would call the customer up after I spoke to Dan. “The usual, I’m guessing?”  
“Yeah, that’d be great. Thanks.” He fiddles with his wallet as I set about making his drink.   
Right, this is your chance. Just ask him if he wants to go out for pizza or something. Just don’t sound to… desperate.   
“Here’s your drink.” I say, handing him a freshly brewed coffee and he nods in thanks. I steel myself and take a deep breath “Heydoyouthinkwhenmyshiftisoverwecanmaybe gooutforpizzamaybe?” As soon as the words leave my mouth, I began punching myself internally. I couldn’t even tell if that had been intelligible, even though I could still taste my regretful words. Dan looks at me curiously.  
“Sorry? Didn’t catch that.” I take another deep breath and focus on slowing down.  
“Do you want to join me for my lunch break today? I know this really good pizza place a couple blocks away. If you want I mean.” I add the last sentence after a second of silence. I was going to speak more, but I stop myself, figuring I would only embarrass myself further. Instead, I settle for examining Dan’s face, looking for a response. I try to read his expression; He looks nervous, and a little sad.  
“Erm, well…” He trails off and a feeling of dread begins filling my stomach. “I appreciate the offer, but I don’t think so.” He looks like he was going to go into more detail, but decided against it. We both stand in silence for a few more seconds, Dan awkwardly fiddling with the hem of his jacket, and me feeling my world crash around my shoulders. “Thanks for the coffee.” He says suddenly. He shoves a couple notes onto the counter and walks back out the door. It takes me a moment to realize that he hadn’t sat down to draw like he had been doing for the last few months.   
With nobody in line, I’m able to lean against the back counter and reevaluate my life. Why had I been so confident that he would say yes? Now, because of me, Dan probably felt really awkward and I felt worse than I thought possible, seeing as I barely knew the guy.   
I’m broken from my self-pitying thoughts by a woman in a yellow dress trying to get my attention. I stand up, walking over to the counter.  
“Sorry about that. You ordered that vanilla latte, right?” She nods in affirmation. I locate it and pick it up to hand it her, only to find that it has gone slightly cool. “I’m afraid this is has gone a bit cold. Would you like me to remake it for you?”   
“Yes please.” She replies with a smile. I’m relieved to see that she isn’t upset about me neglecting her drink. As I stir in the cream she speaks again. “I sort of saw what happened between you and that other man.” She speaks nervously, like she’s afraid I’ll be mad at her for eavesdropping.  
“You heard the whole thing?” I ask and she nods. “I suppose I was a bit loud.”  
“I’m sorry that didn’t work out. You guys were really cute together.”   
I smile to myself. “Yeah, I thought so too.” I hand her her drink and she returns to her seat and gets out her phone.   
DAN

The second I’m back in my dorm, I collapse against the pillows, burying my face from the world.  
Stupid, stupid, stupid, turning Phil down like that. He didn’t deserve such a rude let down, but then again, he doesn’t deserve to be put through what I would put him through if I had said yes.  
I’m basically poison in a relationship, and have been for most of my life. Just my presence kills the mood, and I don’t want to bother Phil the way I did Brian.  
Brian was everything that I ever thought I wanted. He was perfect, in every sense of the word, and I was the one who screwed it up.   
We had met through a mutual friend a few years back, and from the moment I saw him, I knew that it wouldn’t be long before I fell in love with him, even if he didn’t love me back.  
But he did.  
Within the next two weeks we had already gone on three dates and had hit it off better than either of us hoped. We had everything in common, from the shows we watched to the type of music we listened to, to our strange and shared love for cereal. Time only brought us closer together, and eventually people started seeing us as a joined unit, but we didn’t mind.  
It became hard to get us without the other, and everyone just accepted that it would always be this way. We spent every minute of every day with each other, and it’s amazing how we didn’t get sick of each other within the first few months.  
I had only known him for a few months before he asked me to move in with him, and the answer of course, was yes. Anything to spend more time with him.   
I gave everything to our relationship, and he did too, but as time went on, I saw him change. It started slow, with small excuses. He’d keep us late and we’d miss our reservation. Of course it wasn’t his fault, but we’d argue about it anyway  
“Why didn’t you tell us to go earlier?”  
“Why didn’t you reserve a later time, you know it takes me a while to get ready.”  
“Didn’t you notice that it would take a long time to get there?”  
I apologized. I always did.   
It might not have actually been my fault, although my timing has always been terrible, but I didn’t have the heart or will to argue more than we already did. I could already see frayed edges to our relationship, and arguing more only pulled at the edges, slowly bringing us farther and farther apart.  
After I apologized, he would tell me that he wasn’t really mad, as long as I didn’t do it again.  
But still, life happened, and he blamed me.  
Over and over again I would ‘forget to remind him of an appointment’, or I ‘wouldn’t tell him that I was going out’, which resulted in him worrying about me.  
I would use the last of the eggs and when I didn’t immediately go out to get more, he would be disappointed in me.  
I got more stressed than I should have been, being weighted down by both the stress of keeping him happy and the worry that what we had shared only a few months earlier was gone. It hung over my head at all times, threatening to drop at any given moment. I would mess up more and more often, breaking dishes or forgetting to get Brian a present for our two year anniversary, and although he didn’t get anything for me, I was to blame.   
At some point, I noticed him staying away all night, more and more often and when he finally told me that he was sleeping at a friend’s house, I didn’t blame him.  
“I just need some space.” He told me, and it was all I could do not to drop to the floor and beg him to forgive me. Forgive me for hurting him so bad, forgive me for not being good enough.  
He would come home, his lips swollen and his hair mussed up, telling me that he just needed one night to himself after all the stress that I had put him through.   
I was hurting him, he said.  
He told me that I was and I believed that it was true. I was being compliant with anything that he’d say, desperate for us to be the way that we were, but each time i would try to hold us together, it seemed to pull us apart even more. Our relationship was like sand, while I tried to hold it tightly, no matter what I did, we were slipping from my fingers.  
It hurt when he finally kicked me out. Even though I know that we had both stopped loving each other ages ago, I still pretended because that was all I wanted a few years ago. I didn’t want to let go of the idea that he was mine and I was his.  
I left our house, packing up what I had and renting a cheap university dorm instead, where I could wallow in my own guilt and pain with no one around to see.  
For a week, I did my best to remind myself that I couldn’t see Brian anymore. I reminded myself that I couldn’t try to fix something that had broken years ago.   
That week, I had gone to a different coffee shop than normal, and that’s when I first saw Phil.  
Phil.  
I groan into my pillows as the memory of today resurfaces, playing back in it’s full awkwardness. His expression had dropped from hopeful to heartbroken in less than a second, and the image replayed itself in my mind until I finally got out of bed to distract myself.  
Grabbing my backpack, I pull out my sketchbook, flipping through the pages until I land on a picture of Brian from before. He was laughing, the corners of his eyes crinkled and his head thrown back, and I’m stunned for a moment at how happy he looks. How he looked before our relationship crashed and burned.  
I shake my head, changing the page and trying to forget the image of him. The next page I stop at is the one of Phil from a few days ago, that I still can’t get right.  
He’s leaning over the counter, handing a drink to a faceless customer, unmistakable happiness in just his stance. His face is blank, and even though I can see it from memory, I can’t draw it right.   
I grab a pencil from my bag, poising the tip against the paper as I try one more to draw Phil right when my phone buzzes next to my knee, causing me to jump and draw a quick line across the paper.  
I roll my eyes in frustration as the buzzing doesn’t stop, indicating that I have a call. Grabbing my phone, I check to see who—  
Brian.  
My breath sticks in my throat as I see his name flashing across the screen, something I used to love to see but now it only scares me.  
It vibrates in my hand and I reach out a shaking finger to swipe across to take the call.  
“Brian?” I hear my voice shake as I speak and mentally smack myself for it.  
“Dan? Hey sweetie, I miss you.” His words are soft, gentle and filled with love and my heart aches.  
“I…I miss you too.” I manage out.  
“Are you okay? I’m so sorry I haven’t talked to you in a week and I didn’t think I needed to tell you that you should call.”   
“I’m sorry, Brian, I was busy—”  
“Yeah, yeah. Listen.” He sounds stressed, and I want to take him into my arms and comfort him. “I need your help. I know we fought, but I miss you. You know?”  
I nod, knowing he can’t see me. “Yeah.”  
“I kinda need your help with something. I need to go to this dinner thing for work tomorrow, and I don’t have anyone to go with. I sort of already told my boss that I had a date.”  
I hesitate. Is he asking me to come back?  
“Dan? Sweetie, what do you think?”  
“I…” I don’t actually know what to say. More than anything, I want to say yes, yes I will come back, yes I’ll get better, but what if I don’t? What if I I’m still holding on to something that I should have let go years ago?  
My eyes scan my room for an excuse, landing on the open sketchbook and Phil’s figure leaned across the counter.  
Don’t do it Dan, I think, Don’t bring him into this.  
“Tomorrow night?” I ask him, waiting for the affirmative that I know will come. “I, um, sort of have a date that night.”  
The line is silent for almost thirty seconds, and I’m terrified that I’ve broken his heart.  
“Oh.” Is all he says, and I nod again.  
“Yeah. I mean, if I had known…”  
“Right. Yeah of course. Different lives and all. I just thought you’d maybe want start over. I mean I know we left on a sour note, but I thought that maybe if we try then maybe we can figure something out.” He’s quiet for a little, and I try to think of something to say.  
“Well. Have fun on your date then.” His voice is clipped and cold, and I my heart twists.  
“Yeah. You have fun at your dinner.”  
He hangs up without answering, and I’m left listening to the cold dial tone.  
•••••••  
The bells jingle cheerfully a I pull open the door to the coffee shop, alerting Phil at the counter. He glances up at me for a second in surprise, before tearing his gaze away and focusing on the drink he’s making.  
The walk to the counter seems to be miles long, and when I reach it, I can’t help but wish it was longer.   
“Um, hi.” I manage out, my voice almost cracking.  
Phil looks at me, his expression neutral with a simple smile. “Hi, what can I get you?”   
I hesitate. “One caramel macchiato please.”  
He nods, turning to make my drink. I watch him as his back is turned to me, trying to think of the best way to start up a conversation. His shoulders are tense and his movements are jerky and distracted, and I figure he can probably feel my eyes on him.  
He returns with my drink, his face carefully blank as he hands it to me, typing in what I owed him. I stay silent while paying, unable to bring myself to say anything to break the tension between us. Finally, as he’s about to turn away I manage out a, “Wait!”  
Phil turns, raising an eyebrow. He looks upset, and disappointed and I don’t blame him. “Yes?”  
“I was just—I mean, I uh.” I swallow, looking down at the counter. “I really like pizza.” Instantly, I feel stupid for only saying that, but my mind comes up blank when I try to elaborate.   
Glancing up, I see a small smile forming on his lips, but he fights it. “Yeah?”  
I nod. “Yeah. I mean, if the offer still stands, I’d love to go out with you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for reading, hope you enjoyed!! :)  
> Also, happy October!!!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> Comments and kudos are welcome, they make me very happy!! :)  
> Also, this fic is half written by my fantastic sister who does not have an account here. So half the kudos go to her!


End file.
